ITF J300 College Park Recap, Videos; Jovic Falls Just Short Against Alexandrova at US Open; US Open Junior Qualifying Begins Thursday in the Bronx

If you weren't able to follow my daily coverage of the ITF J300 in College Park last week, my recap of the titles for Teodora Kostovic and future University of Virginia Cavalier Rafael Jodar appears today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. Given their dominance last week, they have to be considered among the favorites at the US Open Junior Championships next week, but they both won the Roehampton J300 warmup for Wimbledon last month, and both bowed out in the quarterfinals.

The videos from the boys and girls singles finals are below.

USTA National 18s champion Iva Jovic was one of the major stories of the first day at the US Open, and she was in the spotlight again today in the second round. The 16-year-old from Torrance California battled for three hours and took WTA No. 31 Ekaterina Alexandrov deep into a third set before finally falling 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Jovic, who had beaten WTA No. 41 Magda Linette of Poland Monday without too much difficulty, faced a different challenge in Alexandrova, who hits bigger and is more unpredictable than Linette. The 29-year-old from Russia didn't appear ready for Jovic, who, to be fair, she probably knew nothing about, with Jovic jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Alexandrova got the break back, but was broken serving a 3-4, double faulting at 0-30 and 0-40 to give Jovic the chance to serve out the set. She couldn't do it, but Jovic returned well in the next game and broke Alexandrova for the set.

After five breaks in the first set, there was only one in the second, with Jovic broken serving at 2-3. She then took a medical timeout, possibly due to the heat, and her blood pressure was checked, but she continued and forced Alexandrova to serve out the set with two more holds.

After a 10-minute break under the extreme heat rule in effect, Jovic missed a golden opportunity, six of them in fact, failing to take a 2-0 lead in the third set despite Alexandrova going down 0-40 and facing three ad-outs. Jovic was broken at 2-2, but got the break right back, with Alexandrova not winning a point on serve. It must be said that neither served well--Alexandrova was at exactly 50% and Jovic at 49% for first serves--and that played out as the match approached its conclusion. Jovic lost serve again and Alexandrova held for a 5-3, lead, but she was unable to convert three match points serving for it at 5-4. Jovic again struggled on serve at 5-all, missing 5 of 8 first serves to give Alexandrova a second chance to close it out. Alexandrova played well when she didn't have a match point, but got extremely tight at 40-15, making two unforced errors on match points four and five. Jovic earned a game point, with Alexandrova losing four points in a row, but she came up with a forehand winner  to save it. On match point No. 6, Jovic came up with a great return on a rare Alexandrova first serve, but Alexandrova hit a backhand winner to earn a seventh match point, which she converted when Jovic's backhand return of a second serve went just wide.

Jovic looked, on the ESPN+ stream, bitterly disappointed in the loss, no doubt recognizing that she had opportunities to reach the third round against an opponent not playing her best. But she should be encouraged by her ability to earn those opportunities against a seed at a slam, and will no doubt put the experience to good use in the future.

Jovic and partner Tyra Grant, the San Diego 18s champions, are on the women's doubles schedule for Thursday, and Jovic is expected to play the junior championships, which begin Sunday.

The Kalamazoo 18s champions Nikita Filin and Alex Razeghi played their first round men's doubles match today, losing to Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia and Skander Mansouri(Wake Forest) of Tunisia 6-4, 6-3.

Grant and Aleks Kovacevic defeated fellow wild cards Learner Tien and Clervie Ngounoue 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of mixed doubles action today.

Wednesday's second round results of Americans:

Madison Keys[14] d. Maya Joint[Q](AUS) 6-4, 6-0

Coco Gauff[3] d. Tatjana Maria(GER) 6-4, 6-0

Paula Badosa[26](ESP) d. Taylor Townsend 6-3, 7-5

Peyton Stearns d. Daria Kasatkina[12](RUS) 6-1, 7-6(3)

Ekaterina Alexandrova[29](RUS) d, Iva Jovic[WC] 4-6, 6-4, 7-5

Emma Navarro[13] d. Arantxa Rus(NED) 6-1, 6-1

Frances Tiafoe[20] d. Alexander Shevchenko(KAZ) 6-4, 6-1, 1-0 ret.

Taylor Fritz[12] d. Matteo Berrettini(ITA) 6-3, 7-6(1), 6-1

Ben Shelton[13] d. Roberto Bautista Agut(ESP) 6-3, 6-4, 6-4

Jiri Lehecka[32](CZE) d. Mitchell Krueger[Q] 6-7(5), 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5

Brandon Nakashima d. Arthur Cazaux(FRA) 6-4, 6-4, 6-2

Thursday's second round matches featuring Americans:

Alex Michelsen v Jannik Sinner[1](ITA)

Sebastian Korda[16] v Tomas Machac(CZE)

Tommy Paul[14] v Max Purcell(AUS)

Sofia Kenin v Jessica Pegula[6]

Caroline Dolehide v Sara Errani(ITA)

Ashlyn Krueger v Mirra Andreeva[21](RUS)

Varvara Lepchenko[Q] v Anastasia Potapova(RUS)

Qualifying for the US Open Junior Championships begin Thursday at the Cary Leeds Center in the Bronx.

As is often the case, the wild cards that are initially distributed for the qualifying are not necessary, with late withdrawals moving players in on their own. Stiles Brockett, Maximus Dussault and Jack Secord got into qualifying on their own rankings, so their qualifying wild cards went to Ryan Cozad, Jordan Reznik and Rohan Belday. Ronit Karki also got into qualifying on his ranking, 126 at the time the acceptance list was published.

Nancy Lee didn't need her girls wild card, getting into qualifying on her ranking of 142, so Olivia Center, who qualified last year, was given the wild card. Anna Frey also received a wild card, and she was not announced as a wild card recipient earlier in the week, with one reserved. Trinetra Vijayakumar moved into the qualifying draw on her own ranking.

It appears that the special exempts from the J300 in Canada this week will all be used, with Mia Pohankova of Slovakia, who was the first one out of the main draw of the US Open juniors, and Naomi Basiletti of Italy, No. 9 on the qualifying list, making the quarterfinals in Canada, and so unable to compete in the qualifying. Basiletti defeated No. 2 seed Wakana Sonobe of Japan in today's third round, Pohankova defeated No. 4 seed Kristina Penickova.  There were two walkovers in the doubles in Canada because the players had to leave for qualifying in New York, which is a bad look for both tournaments. Canada should not allot four days to play three rounds and the US Open should not start the qualifying on Thursday.

The boys special exempts should be the two unseeded Italians in the Canada J300 quarterfinals: Lorenzo Angelini and Alessandro Battison. 

There was one walkover in boys doubles, but that doesn't appear to be related to the US Open qualifying, with both players already in the main draw.

Exactly half of the 32-player field in the girls qualifying draw is from the United States, with nine players from the US in boys qualifying.